21 Jan 2016

“Is
Sanskrit political or sacred, oppressive or liberating, dead or alive?”

For the past sixty
years my primary activity has been to interpret Sanskrit and sanskriti. Indeed,
Malhotra and I are sailing in the same boat. This book provokes a debate
between the ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ of our heritage. It exposes that many
outsiders pretend to be insiders, but their hidden agenda is to convince
ignorant Hindus that the Vedas are myths and that the traditional claims are
nonsensical. They pretend to know our traditions even better than our highest
exponents. Unfortunately, most insiders are either blissfully unaware of these
subversive projects or are living in isolation and afraid of debating them.
Malhotra’s work is designed after the traditional method of purva-paksha and
uttarapaksha which makes it very interesting and thought provoking. I strongly
recommend this work to all Indologists, traditional pandits, historians,
philosophers and ordinary seekers.

DAYANANDA
BHARGAVA, Recipient of President’s Award, former Head of Department of Sanskrit
and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Jodhpur;
presently Chairman, J.R. Rajasthan Sanskrit University, Jaipur.

This book rips
through the fortress of American Indology and its insinuations that Sanskrit
traditions are socially abusive and are driven by the political motives of the
elite. The author is devastatingly impressive in the way he exposes the
prevailing hegemonic discourse of the West and the role of the large army of
Indian sepoys who have been recruited as mercenaries. Rajiv Malhotra has been
one of the most effective kshatriyas in the intellectual kurukshetra of today.
Every traditional scholar and practitioner of Vedic traditions must read it and
join his home team.

KAPIL
KAPOOR, former Rector and Professor of English and Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal
Nehru University; Chief Editor, Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Chief Editor,
Encyclopedia of Indian Poetics.

Westerners consider
themselves very progressive when meddling in Indian affairs. The values they
now defend, such as egalitarianism and feminism, are different from what
prevailed in the West during the colonial age, but the underlying spirit of
“civilizing the savages” is the same. They now try to wrest control of Sanskrit
studies from the “oppressive, reactionary” traditionalists, and increasingly
succeed with the help of native informers eager for the status and money that
Western academics can confer. Once upon a time, the colonizers brought prized
artworks to museums in the West, claiming that these were safer there than in
the care of the irresponsible natives. Now, their successors try to carry away
the adhikara (prerogative) to interpret Sanskrit texts, so as to make Hindus
look at their own tradition through anti-Hindu lenses. For the first time,
Rajiv Malhotra analyses the stakes involved for Hindu civilization, which risks
losing control over the backbone of its historical identity, and the power equation
in the production of knowledge concerning Sanskrit and the dharmic tradition.
He proposes a research programme that Hindus will need to carry out if they are
to face this sophisticated onslaught. This path-breaking book maps a
battlefield hitherto unknown to most besieged insiders.

KOENRAAD
ELST, Indologist.

While an army of
Western scholars has been hurling criticisms and throwing challenges against
Indian heritage for two centuries, there has hardly been a commensurate
response from the heirs of our heritage. This is largely due to gaps in
knowledge at our end: the Sanskrit pandits are often ignorant of nuanced
English and the Western frameworks and paradigms; and the modern westernised
Indians are culturally illiterate and lack the competence to respond. This book
bridges the gaps and enables traditional pandits as well as the Indian literati
to comprehend Western Indology from an Indian perspective. It also exposes how
westerners have manoeuvred by capturing Indian resources to perpetuate their biased
verdicts. The book makes it possible to have dialogues as equals. The
responsibility now lies squarely on traditional Indian scholars to take on the
issues between insiders and outsiders which this book has framed. Rajiv
Malhotra’s contribution consists of this valuable role as a prime initiator of
this dialogue.

The Battle for
Sanskrit has immense potential to equip and arm Vedic insiders with the
required knowledge not just to battle the outsiders but, more importantly, to
preserve their own sanskriti based on its indigenous principles. I humbly
request all Sanskrit lovers, scholars and practitioners of Vedic traditions to
read this book and join the suggested ‘home team’ for serious intellectual
exchanges on the issues concerned.

The Battle for
Sanskrit wrests open a main gate to the predominantly western constructed
citadel known as Indology. Who can remain silent or, worse, collaborate, in the
face of groundless allegations that Indian elites are promulgating Sanskrit and
its traditions for political gain, thus perpetuating a so-called Sanskrit-born
social abuse? As the linguistic key to the highest wisdom of humanity, Sanskrit
studies must escape captivity enforced by academic guardians who over-zealously
wield the club of Western theoretical methods. The author, besides exposing the
colonial baggage still colouring the western approach to India’s Sanskrit
heritage, also shines his torch, in fairness, upon the large platoon of Indian
sepoys colluding as mercenaries to help keep the Sanskrit potentiality in
check. A salient point this book offers us is that the Western approach to
Sanskrit is often weighed down by “political philology”—cultural biases,
hegemonic filters. Superbly presenting the positive correction to this
imbalance, the author advocates our seeing through the lens of “sacred
philology.

Rajiv Malhotra
deserves kudos for his insightful book, The Battle for Sanskrit, which is a
much-needed intervention that gives insiders a seat at the table as equals.
Rather than Western Indologists and their Indian supporters becoming defensive,
they should welcome this book as an opportunity for honest exchanges. The
issues raised here are too important to be ignored any longer. The direction
that this battle takes can have far-reaching consequences on approaches to
science, technology, social studies and economics. The pompous edifice of
Western Indology that has been built over a long time will not crumble
overnight. It is now up to the traditional scholars and practitioners to heed
the author’s call and develop solid intellectual responses (uttara-paksha) to
the challenges.

The knowledge system
which has developed in relation to ancient India since the middle of the
eighteenth century was (and still is) dominated by Western scholarship. The
so-called consensus in this field was essentially a matter of agreement among
Western scholars, with Indians playing only a subsidiary role. The situation
should have begun to change in the light of the new power equations since the
mid-twentieth century. The fact that it has not yet significantly done so is
due to several factors operating in the background, the most important of which
is the deplorable unwillingness among Western scholars to take note of the
viewpoints of an increasing number of Indian professionals. It is basically a
confrontational situation, if not that of war. The Western academic
institutions dealing with India are full of ‘experts’ who are basically
anti-India. Rajiv Malhotra, a well-known independent scholar, has long been
known for his deep perception of this problem and his clear, well-argued
analysis and criticism of it. I have always been an avid reader of his columns
and books. In this volume he throws new light on the power network behind
Sanskrit studies in the West. This is a book which will long be cherished by
the rational elements among the Indian and Western Indologists.

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